It is still vitally important that we help smokers to quit because smoking harms the immune system and smokers are therefore less protected against infections like coronavirus. Smokers are therefore at greater risk of:
■ getting acute respiratory infections
■ infections lasting longer
■ infections being more serious than it would be for someone who does not smoke

Dr Nick Hopkinson, Reader in Respiratory Medicine at Imperial College London and Chair of ASH explains the relationship between smoking and COVID-19 and the key messages for smokers in the video here.

Research in the New England Journal of Medicine from COVID-19 patients in China, shows that these impacts are being seen among smokers with COVID-19. Among the research cohort, smokers were about 1.5 times more likely to see their disease progress to the severe stage compared to non-smokers. You can view the full research here.

Can I still have my CO reading taken?

Carbon monoxide (CO) monitoring will need to be paused for the time being.

What about my stop smoking medications?

We need to make sure our clients continue to receive stop smoking medications and we will need to be adaptable to make sure that this happens. For example: Posting medication or or sending letters of medication recommendation for GPs and community pharmacists. Your advisor will be providing further guidance on this process shortly, if you are running low on your stop smoking medications, please do contact the team on 0151 374 2535/ 0800 061 421.

I am pregnant and want to stop smoking, what can I do?

Pregnant smokers may still be being seen as part of their antenatal care and care should be taken to minimise the infection risk. Please contact the team on 0151 374 2535/ 0800 061 421 to discuss this further.

Public Health England disparities review finds Black and Asian groups more likely to die of COVID-19

Public Health England has published its review of COVID-19 disparities, looking at how the impact of the disease varies according to ethnicity and other factors, such as age, sex, deprivation, occupation, and geography. A link to the full report can be found here.

The review found that:

People of Bangladeshi ethnicity have around twice the risk of death as White British people.

People of Chinese, Indian, Pakistani, Other Asian, Caribbean, and Other Black ethnicity had between 10 and 50% higher risk of death.

Death rates in the most deprived areas are more than double those in the least deprived areas.

People over 80 were seventy times more likely to die than those under 40.

There was a strong regional pattern, with London showing the highest diagnoses and death rates.

The analysis was not able to account for other factors, such as comorbidities, occupation, and household composition. These are important, as there are high proportions of BAME workers in key occupations, and many from BAME groups tend to live in larger and multi-generational households, both of which can lead to higher risk of exposure to the virus.

It appears from the PHE analysis that the impact of COVID-19 follows a similar pattern to so many of the deeply ingrained public health challenges that we face – from morbid obesity to deaths from smoking. It is always the most vulnerable that are impacted by public health challenges, and that has a good deal to do with the environments and social determinants of health which people face.

Here at Solutions 4 Health we will continue to both provide and develop innovative, sustainable lifestyle and clinical services that improve healthcare for all, especially those who experience inequitable health outcomes.